Local boy’s death probed

Homicide investigators look for undetermined cause

Marcos Baldovino

Sheriff's homicide investigators are looking into the Jan. 12 death of Marcos Baldovino, a 17-year-old Canyon High School student.

Baldovino injured his back just before Christmas while lifting a garbage can, said the boy's mother.

When the pain worsened and spread to his stomach, his mother took him to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed the boy with a compressed fracture in his back, said Sgt. Shaun McCarthy of the Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.

Baldovino underwent emergency surgery, but a few days later he died at Valley Presbyterian Hospital of an aortic aneurysm, McCarthy said.

"The question is: What was the aortic aneurysm caused from," McCarthy said. "Any time there is a death of an undetermined cause, we get contacted."

"When a doctor doesn't sign the death certificate, we have to decide if there's going to be an investigation of whether the death was criminal or not.

"This kid had an association to a gang in Canyon Country, and because of that, rumors are going around school that we're following up," McCarthy said.

McCarthy followed up on four rumors circulating among Baldovino's peers.

"So far we've determined that none of them have any fact to them," he said.

The boy's mother, Maria Baldovino, said her son was not in a gang.

"We're investigating the case still," she said. "He told me he had a pain in his stomach and (I) took him to the hospital. He used to work with my dad like two days a week and work with heavy things ... like the lawn machine.

"He was a beautiful boy."

Homicide detectives will continue to investigate, McCarthy said.

"Doctors (said) it could have been from many things - a severe blow, preexisting conditions - they didn't know, and ultimately an autopsy may determine what it was," McCarthy said.

McCarthy said an autopsy report can take from 60 days to six months to be completed.

"To be honest with you, we may never know the answer, unless someone comes forward and tells us," McCarthy said.